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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is Sergey Mikhaylych?

2. What does Dmitri dream about on his way to the Caucasus?

3. How does Tolstoy say Ivan Ilych felt upon taking his position at the Court of Justice?

4. What causes Sergey to say that he and Marya must return to the country?

5. How would you describe the nature Dmitri expects to find in the Caucasus?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Dmitri discover about the Chechens?

2. What does Dmitri Olenin think he will find in the Caucasus?

3. What causes Sergey and Marya's relationship to blossom?

4. What does Ivan Ilych learn on his deathbed?

5. How does Praskovya Federovna's bad temper affect Ivan Ilych?

6. What is Eugene Irtenev's relationship with Stepanida?

7. What does Marya think about her marriage at first?

8. Describe Dmitri's departure from the Caucasus.

9. How does illness affect Ivan Ilych?

10. What is the relationship between the Grebensk Cossacks and the Muslim Tartars?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Tolstoy's literary universe a chaotic one, as people say modern life is chaotic or random--or is it organized around some law or consistency? What law Tolstoy's fictional world organized around?

Essay Topic 2

Late in life, Tolstoy abjured private possessions and advocated communes. Does the Tolstoy of the stories value worldly possessions less than other kinds of things? Where are worldly possessions in Tolstoy's value scale? Analyze three stories and describe Tolstoy's views.

Essay Topic 3

How does the theme of the child function in "Family Happiness"? Who acts like a child? How do actual children affect the characters?

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This section contains 749 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample